Iceland 2016/17 - grants and loans

Student grants

In principle no public grants/scholarships are available. However, some merit-based grants are provided by universities and by the Icelandic Research Fund for Graduate Students for the 2nd cycle students.

Loans

Loans are provided to full-time students by the Icelandic Student Loan Fund for short, 1st and 2nd cycle programmes. The amount depends heavily on student's family and personal circumstances, including income. The basic individual support for academic year 2015/16 is ISK 165 717/month or ISK 24.858 for each completed ECTS unit. Around 50 % of students take out a student loan. The same support is available for 1st and 2nd cycle students.

Loans may be awarded to full-time students who participate in further programmes with 60 ECTS units of study in each academic year or at least 30 ECTS units each semester. Loans may also be granted to cover tuition fees for courses (not including maintenance) that are organised differently. Loans are not granted for preparatory courses, doctoral programmes or professional development programmes.

The loan is indexed and has a fixed interest rate of 1 %. Repayment begins two years after graduation. Graduation is defined when the student ceases to receive loans from the Student Loan Fund, unless he demonstrates that he will continue to qualify for loans in the next school year thereafter. Refund will stand over until the debt is paid or the borrower has passed away.

The board of the Fund may grant exemption from the annual repayment, in full or in part, if the pursuit of studies that qualify for a loan, illness, unemployment and/or unfitness for work due to illness, disability, pregnancy, the care of children, the care of a spouse or other comparable circumstances cause the recipient substantial financial difficulty.